Iran win bronze in Greco-Roman World Cup

Defending champion Iran rolled over Turkey, 6-2, in the bronze-medal dual of the Greco-Roman World Cup 2017 in Abadan, southwest of Iran.

Rio 2016 champions Roman VLASOV (75kg) and Davit CHAKVETADZE (85kg) from Russia led a convoy of world and Olympic Games medalists to a 5-3 victory over Azerbaijan to lift its first Greco-Roman World Cup since 2013.

Russia, which has finished runner-up in the World Cup meets the last three years, got wins from Olympic Games bronze medalists Mingiyan SEMENOV (59kg) and Sergei SEMENOV (130kg) as well as 2015 world bronze medal winner Artem SURKOV (66kg) in claiming its seventh overall World Cup in the classic style.

Only the now-defunct Soviet Union has more World Cup titles in Greco-Roman, monopolizing the dual-meet competition the first 12 years, 1980-1991, it was held.

Germany won five bouts from 71kg to 98kg, for a 5-3 win over Ukraine for fifth place while Kazakhstan won the last four bouts of its duel with Belarus for a 6-2 win and seventh place.

In Friday evening’s finale, Semenov and Surkov gave Russia and early 2-0 lead over Azerbaijan. Semenov defeated Taleh MAMMADOV, 9-2, in the opening bout and Surkov followed with an 8-0 technical fall over Nofal BABAYEV. SURKOV scored a four-point throw and a pair of gut wrenches.

Rio 2016 bronze medal winner Rasul CHUNAYEV, also a 2015 world champion in Las Vegas, pulled one back for Azerbaijan, 2-1, over Poddubny tourney titlist Abuyazid MANTSIGOV at 71kg.

Two-time Olympic Games champion and double world champion Vlasov earned a third victory, edging European Games gold medalist Elvin MURSALIYEV (75kg), 2-2 on criteria.

In the evening’s key bout, Chakvetadze avenged a 2015 World Cup loss to two-time junior world champion Islam ABBASOV, 2-1, on a caution awarded in the final 30 seconds of the 85kg bout. Two years ago, Abbasov landed on top of a back-arching throw by Chakvetadze for a fall and Azerbaijan’s only World Cup triumph to date in Greco-Roman.

Azerbaijan claimed a third win with Orkhan NURIYEV (AZE) 3-0 decision over Maksim SAFARIAN (RUS) 3-0 at 98kg, leaving the door open to a possible team triumph with a technical fall or better at 130kg.

But, in the battle of Rio 2016 bronze medalists, Semenov had other ideas, taking a 1-1 nail-biter from Sabah SHARIATI (AZE) and ending the four-year title drought for the Russian team.

“We came here to win the title. We prepared well and we were confident about winning the championship,” Vlasov told United World Wrestling media.

The two-time Olympic Games gold medalist added “The quality of the duals shows the high level of the tournament. We had a good team and the atmosphere in the hall and the organization of the World Cup was very interesting.”

Further, added a shout-out to the tournament hosts, “I love Iran and the Iranian fans. The Iranian legend Hamid SORYAN is one of my best friends.”

Just prior to the bronze-medal dual, Hossein NOURI broke his foot in the warm-ups just minutes before the and could not compete.

“We deserved to earn a better place. Most of the Iranian wrestlers were young and I am satisfied about their performance.” Iran’s head coach Ali ASHKANI said.

“Turkey was a good team but our performance was better than theirs. I hope the Iranian people will accept this trophy and we will train hard for upcoming events such as the Islamic Solidarity Games and Asian Championships.” Ashkani added.